Little NYC museumgoers will be pleased to know that the American Museum of Natural History is adding a new addition to its already impressive collection of dino fossils. In January 2016, a 122-foot-long critter will be installed for all to see—and it’s such a new species that the paleontologists who discovered it have not even formally named it yet!
What we know about the new addition:
-It belongs to a group known as Titanosaurs—this thing is totally massive.
-It’s an herbivore and was probably less terrifying than some of its meat-eating counterparts.
-It lived in the forests of (today’s) Patagonia about 100 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period and is (yippee!) one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered.
-When it roamed the earth, it weighed in at about 77 tons (equivalent to 14 or 15 African elephants…)
Titanosaur, as we’ll call our new friend, will take the place of the Barosaurus (on display since 1996) in the Wallach Orientation Center. Oh, and one last thing…Titanosaur doesn’t even fit in the 19-foot-ceiling gallery—its neck and head will stretch out towards the elevator banks. Until he arrives, spend some time at our favorite kids' museums!